Class Meets: Tuesdays TBD

Professor: Drew Sullivan, Work phone: (212) 621-7639 (The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, 5th floor - Special Assignment Team, 10020), email: drew@ap.org

Office Hours: By appointment

Class Objective: In the old days, if you wanted to know about what was happening in Municipal court, you'd call up and ask Frank. He knew everything. If it wasn't Frank in your town, it would be Mel or Gladys. There was always someone who knew what was going on because their hands touched every case file that came through the system.

But times are changing. The traditional guardians of public records are disappearing and they are being replaced by a new being that has names like IBM and Compaq. Nowadays, records become electronic from conception and they never exist on paper. In this new world, we have to know these new names and be able to work with them as good or better than we did with Frank.

This class will get you started down that path. You will learn the basics of investigative reporting but from the perspective of the new information age. You will learn how the Internet and other electronic resources can be used to search primary source public records. You will learn the basics of how information is stored and retreived in databases. You will learn about commercial and free data sources and how sophisticated news organizations use these tools to better report their story. Finally, you will apply all this knowledge toward an investigative project.

Grades: Your grade will be based on the items listed below. Attendance is a very strong component of your grade; each missed class is very difficult to make up because they are four hours each. I will not accept any excuses other than a death in the immediate family or a severe illness. In the case of the latter, a doctor's note is required. On the second missed class, your grade drops one letter. The third missed class results in another drop in a letter grade. Academic dishonesty will result in an immediate F and the Dean's office will be notified.

Grades are based on the following components:

• Class Project: You will be asked to do one class project. This will be described in more detail later. (25%)
• Class Assignments: You will have some homework assignments assigned throughout the course of the semester.(30%)
• Mid-term Exam (15%)
• Final Exam (15%)
• In-class participation: Participation in the discussions of the readings. (15%)

Helping other students: Unlike other courses, students are allowed to help each other on certain projects. Every student is responsible for turning in a project but that doesn't mean that you can not turn to your fellow students for some help. The end product must be your own. When you benefit from the help of another student, you should find some way to document their participation.

Books and Required reading: Two books were assigned for this class: The Reporters Handbook by Steve Weinberg and Get the Facts on Anyone by Dennis King. There will be regular reading assignments from these as well as other sources that will be handed out throughout the semester.

Recommended Reading: The following texts are not required but are recommended. They will help you greatly at certain points in the course and an enterprising soul who digested all of these would find themselves well on their way to being a Renaissance journalist.

(the list will be posted before class starts)

(subject to change)

RH = Reporters Handbook

1. Introduction to investigative reporting. Discuss semester project. Introduction to computer-assisted reporting and online reporting.
2. The Internet. How it works and doesn't work.  Search engines - downloading records - intro to Excel
3. The Internet (continued). Intro to Excel. Learning the essentials of public records. Vital records: birth, marriage and death. Court Records. RH pgs. 3-15
4. Land and Property records. Backgrounding a business. Guest lecturer: Farrell Kramer. RH pgs 279-299. 421-435.
5. Court Records. Backgrounding an individual. Other state and local records. Ethics and reporting. Guest lecturer: Bob Port, The AP. RH pgs 31-48, 217-269
6. Backgrounding a government agency. Developing sources. Guest lecturer: Martha Mendoza RH pgs 91-144
7. Mid Term Exam. Computer Assisted Reporting - data structures and formats
8. Using databases to do stories. Analyzing data. Legal issues - libel and other concerns in investigating reporting
9. Organizing information. Interviewing techniques - finding and interviewing sources
10. How investigative and computer assisted reporting is actually used in practice. Using commercial services - Lexis/Nexis, Autotrack, etc.
11. Modern investigative research. Writing the investigative story. Guest Lecturer: Don Pine.
12. Open class: Work on Investigative Projects or tour of New York City public records: TBA
13. Semester Project Due
14. Final Exam